Okay, I have sound on my PC again. That makes it far, far easier to know when someone has sent me a message because I’m not good about looking to see if anything is flashing on my taskbar.
Now I’ve spent way too much time thinking, yet again, about hooking up the input line from the stereo system to the PC so that I can try transferring music from the vinyl LPs and cassette tapes to the hard drive and then to CDs. But again, there’s the problem of getting rid of the awful hissing noise without spending money on special software I’m unlikely to even understand that does it for me, and the fact that the turntable makes an odd rhythmic noise that I don’t know how to fix. Aren’t there any generally handy folk around Atlanta who could just work magic on the old thing somehow? I’ve had this stereo since I was, oh, 11 or 12 years old, so it isn’t exactly high fidelity equipment and I don’t think it worth taking to a repair shop. But we do have a mess of LPs, and my brother-of-choice has even more, all of which are languishing and the sounds on which we would certainly listen to more if they were on CDs.
I actually managed four errands at rush hour in the suburbs of Atlanta in only 90 minutes. I realize that doesn’t sound like much to anyone who doesn’t live here. And one of those errands involved a trip to the grocery store—a place I’d normally avoid like the plague at that time of day. The only worse time to be at the grocery store is right after some damfool weather monkey says “snow” or “ice” anywhere within 500 miles of Atlanta. But it was worth it today because I knew that dinner would be ready far earlier if I went ahead and got fixings than if sambear had to stop on the way home to do it (he normally does the shopping and food preparation because he wants to do it, but he let me do this today).
So, I:
–picked up littlefirefae
–retrieved sambear‘s PDA from where it was languishing at a doctor’s office. Anything he has forgotten since Monday night can be blamed on the gaping hole it left in his life.
–went to Kroger, got everything on my list and very few things that weren’t on my list (despite the constant chatter from littlefirefae about the vast number of things she needed right away, like fairy stickers and three kinds of hair gel and coloring books and sticky buns and poster board and—well, you get the idea, right?). There was only one actual human cashier working a non-express lane, and I had a LOT more than 15 items. The line for the one non-express human cashier was frightening, and I will not go into an express lane with more than the prescribed number of items, so I went to the self-scan lanes. The sk8tr boi working the sorta-checkout stand there came up and informed me (in an extremely condescending tone) that it was not possible for me to use the self-scan for as many items as I had. I verified that he wasn’t saying that it wasn’t allowed, he was claiming that it just wasn’t possible. I proceeded to demonstrate that yes, it was quite possible. I don’t think he appreciated that. Butt muppet.
–then went and got the items on hold at the library. All of their self-scan things were busy, so an actual human library clerk scanned things for me. That’s unusual anymore. And slower, to be honest. This is, of course, why there are four self-scan machines and only one place for a human to work. Apparently, she’s largely present so that she can collect fines, but she can indeed check out materials, too.
I realize that it seems silly to even mention this to most people, but I am very, very pampered thanks to sambear. I don’t usually have to deal with the rush hour at all, period. And today I drove in both morning and afternoon rush hours, as real_pochacco had a 9am appointment today, too. I ended up driving twice as far as I’d planned to for that one, as he’d left his glasses at home (he isn’t quite used to them yet) and I wasn’t going to have him going through the day without them. So I feel a strange mixture of petulance, fatigue, and pride right now. I did it without taking my second dose of Provigil for the day (because I forgot to take it).
Tomorrow is my “day off” because shadowkatt does volunteer work all day, and I usually get the house all to myself while the other two kids are at school. But I do believe it is probably the best time for me to take the carpet cleaner back up the road to goddessinga and greyknight, who have been marvelously patient while we’ve borrowed it. Would that work for you, GiG? Must put CDs and books on tape in the car…
